Screen21 April 2005

Interview with Cannes artistic director Thierry Fremaux -abstracted from today's Cannes festival press statement.- As a first impression, could we say that the greatfilmmakers are back in strength''In Competition, yes, since there will be many experienced filmmakers at Cannes.If, last year, we seemed to concentrate more on new discoveries, thereturn to the Competition of some of the greatest filmmaker deligh

Italy's BimDistribuzione has acquired Italian distribution rights to Gus Van Sant's Last Days, which is tipped to play incompetition at next month's Cannes Film Festival.The picture, which is sold by HBO London, drawsinspiration from the last days in the life of Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain. Bim will releasethe film, which stars Michael Pitt, Asia Argento and Lukas Haas, on May 20.Meanwhile, Bimalso has Italian distribution righ

The new James Bond film, CasinoRoyale, is scheduled to shoot at the end of 2005 - although it is stilluncertain who will play 007 in the film.With ongoing rumourscirculating throughout the media world, it can be difficult to keep tabs on thelatest information. Here, ScreenDaily.com alleviates some of theconfusion by offering an up-to-date look at 007's status in the press.April 18Pierce Brosnan will not bereturning to screens for the new Bond film

The Cannes Film Festival(May 11-22) unveiled its line-up this morning, with a string of establishedarthouse directors such as Wim Wenders, Jim Jarmusch, Gus Van Sant, DavidCronenberg and Lars von Trier set to compete for the Palme d'Or.Geographically, the competition selection is fairly widespread. Three films from France play in main competition, four from the US and four from Asia. No UK film has made the competition, although Martha Fiennes' Chromophobia plays as the closing

Montreal-based productionand distribution company Equinoxe Films has lured two local industry veterans to its executivesuite. Michele Laroche, who headed marketing and communications at Christal Films,has joined the company as director of theatrical distribution whileMarie-Claude Poulin, for three years a vice-president at TVA Films, will assistEquinoxe chief Michael Mosca in the areas of acquisitions and development oftheatrical projects in Quebec."I'm delighted to welcomeMichele and

International Critics' Weekartistic director Jean-Christophe Berjon has announced the selection for theupcoming 44th edition of the sidebar which runs during the CannesFilm Festival next month.Berjon, backed by members ofthe French Film Critics' Union, unveiled sevenfeatures which will vie for the top prize, worth Euros 5,000. The films selected are either firstor second time efforts.French director ThierryJousse's Les Invisibles, a love story set in the music worl

The Cannes Film Festivalunveils the official line-up for its 58th edition in Paris today ata 9.30am (GMT) press conference.For the first time in many yearsthere are few certain front-runners for a berth. Paris based distributors andsales agencies - usually a strong bellwether for the films that will make thecompetition - have been curiously unsure in their predicti

Dominik Moll's Lemmingwill open the 58th edition of the Cannes Film Festival (May 11-22). George Lucas' StarWars: Episode III - Revenge Of The Sith, which had been widely tipped asthe opening film, will instead premiere out of competition in Cannes on May15, three days ahead of its French opening on May 18. Chromophobia, byUK director Martha Fiennes,will close the festival.

Sony PicturesReleasing International and MTV Networks Europe are teaming up at Cannes tohost a party in honour of the martial arts romp Kung Fu Hustle.Writer/director Stephen Chow will attend the event on May14 at Le Palais Oriental, along with cast members Tin Kai Man, Chan Kwok Kwan, Lam Tze Chung, and Cheung Cheun Nam.This year's jurypresident Emir Kusturica will perform with his No Smoking Orchestra, whileadditional entertainment - as if any were needed - will be prov

CineLink,Sarajevo Film Festival's annual script development program and co-productionmarket for feature-length fiction films, has announced this year's selection.CineLink's remitis to foster films from the Balkan region with the potential for theatricaldistributionThe jurycomprised Ludmila Cvikova, programmer of the Rotterdam International FilmFestival; Christina Kallas, the artistic director of screenplay developmentfunding programme Balkan Fund; and Croatian director Vinko Bre

Director AgnieszkaHolland's Copying Beethoven is shooting this month in Hungary - thelatest in a string of productions attracted to the country because of its lowcosts and film tax breaks.Copying Beethoven tells the story of the last few months inthe life of composer Ludwig van Beethoven and stars Ed Harris as Beethoven andDiane Kruger. The production has a forty-day shooting schedule in Hungary,finishing in late May. Locations include Budapest as well as several smallert

A Warsaw court ruled this week that the Polishco-producer of Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List and executiveproducer of Roman Polanski's The Pianist must immediately start servinghis two-year prison term for his role in a bribery scandal that touched thehighest levels of government.In December, a panel of three judges sentenced Lew Rywin,59, to two years and fined him Euros 25,000 as an accessory toinfluence-peddling. He was to start serving the term Monday, but

AndersThomas Jensen's black comedy Adam's Apples scored a record opening inDenmark over the weekend.Theprolific Danish writer and director's film was released on 69 copies around thecountry and sold 58,214 tickets. It's a record opening for 2005 and the bestopening for a local movie in two years, according to Nordisk Film. Thecritically acclaimed film stars Mads Mikkelsen, Ulrich Thomsen, Paprika Steen,Ali Kazin and Nicolas Bro. Adam's Apples is produced by M&M Production

Ehud Bleiberg and Yitzhak Ginsberg's LosAngeles-based production and sales house Dream Entertainment has picked upinternational rights to Scott Coffey's comedy Ellie Parker and will begin sales at Cannes.Ellie Parkerpremiered in dramatic competition at Sundance and stars Naomi Watts as anaspiring actress who goes to great lengths to realise her dream of Hollywoodstardom.Chevy Chase, Mark Pellegrino, Rebecca Riggs, and Coffeyalso star; Coffey and Watts produced with Matt C

Dir. Chris Nahon, Fr. 2005. 128 min.L'Empire des Loups(The Empire of the Wolves) is another in a growing niche of moody, slickFrench action thrillers trying to compete with similar American and Asian fare.Adapted from a Jean-Christophe Grangenovel, as with the thriller CrimsonRivers and its sequel (all three starring Jean Reno), it is an exercise instyle over substance, a B-movie plot with A-movie gloss. Director Chris Nahon (

Box office receipts in Russia and theCommonwealth of Independent States (CIS) are growing impressively, according tolatest figures.The winter release season (from 26 November 2004to 27 February 2005) saw a total gross of $78.5m, 42.2% higher for the periodyear-on-year, according to Russian Film Business Today.Observers sa

Los Angles-baseddistribution partners FirstLook Media and DEJ Productions have picked up worldwide rights to Wes Cravenproject The Breed, which stars Michelle Rodriguez and will be directedby Craven's longtime collaborator Nick Mastandrea.First Look Media's sales arm First Look International will begin licensingterritories at Cannes next month. Principal photography is scheduled to beginon Apr 18 in South Africa and a US release has been tentatively set for fourthquarter 2005.

New feature films by Lone Scherfig, Hans Weingartner andOskar Roehler are among 21 projects backed by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburgwith over Euros 4.5m in its latest funding session.Euros 400,000 was awarded to Danish filmmaker Lone Scherfigfor her World War II drama Good, based on C.P. Taylor's play, which willbe produced at Berlin locations this summer by Studio Hamburg Letterbox Berlinwith the UK's Tailor-Made Films and Axiom Films.Edukators director Hans Weing

HongKong's production and distribution companies are looking to the summer seasonto claw back market share after a disappointing first quarter of the year. Thefirst quarter of 2005 saw only 14 local films released grossing $7m (HK$54.69m)between them, around 26% of total box office during this period. In comparison,over the last five years, Hong

IFP/New Yorkwill be introducing the mentorship programme IFP Rough Cuts Lab to its IFPmarket and conference, which runs from Sept 18-23.The Lab willfeature a series of structured meetings and seminars designed to helpfilmmakers complete works-in-progress before they enter the marketplace.A team ofmentors comprising producers, directors, editors and the like will screen eightor nine projects selected for the programme, and the chosen filmmakers willmeet adviso

A new entrant looks set to join UK's already crowdeddistribution sector. Gary Smith's Intandem Films is strongly considering handlingthe British release of Stephen Woolley's directorial debut, Stoned,about the life and death of Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones. Intandemfinanced and is selling the film, formerly known as The Wild And WyckedWorld Of Brian Jones.Intandem's Gary Smith said yesterday that Stonedmight be the ideal title with which to launch a

One week afterUIP opened Paramount's Clive Cussler romp Sahara at number one in the UK and Australia,the distributor is attempting to usurp its champion with wide releases in bothmarkets for The Interpreter.Universal'sUN-set thriller opens on 200 prints in Australia on Apr 14 and goes out on 350in the UK, and should prosper given the popularity of Nicole Kidman,particularly in her native Australia.The picture alsoopens in Spain on Apr 14 on 195

One week afterUIP opened Paramount's Clive Cussler romp Sahara at number one in the UK and Australia,the distributor is attempting to usurp its champion with wide releases in bothmarkets for The Interpreter.Universal'sUN-set thriller opens on 200 prints in Australia on Apr 14 and goes out on 350in the UK, and should prosper given the popularity of Nicole Kidman,particularly in her native Australia.The picture alsoopens in Spain on Apr 14 on 195 prints and Taiwan a

Universal's thriller The Interpreter got off to a strong start through UIP atthe weekend, grossing an estimated $9.3m from 15 launches for a $10minternational running total including Greece, which opened last weekend.

The Arts Council of Ireland and the Irish Film Board (IFB)have called for applications to a new production fund entitled Documenting theArts. The fund is intended to finance five or six new documentaries per year. A maximum of Euros 90,000 will available per documentary andIFB participation will be triggered by broadcaster pre-sale or productionfinance, the first form of automatic production funding offered by the agency.Complementing existing documentary and other fundingprogra

Be With Me, directed by Singapore's Eric Khoo (12 Storeys),has been selected as the opening film for directors' fortnight at Cannes. The film weaves together threeinter-connected stories and is inspired by the life of Singapore's Theresa Chan- a blind and deaf woman.'It's almost a silent filmwith only five minutes of dialogue, but it's also a serious film about hope,destiny and love. I am happy that it has touched the heart of [directors'fortnight's] artistic direc

In a world first, the UCIEmpire cinema in London's Leicester Square is set to screen all six of the StarWars films back to back on May 16 - three days before the global release ofStar Wars: Episode III - Revenge Of The Sith.Distributor 20thCentury Fox is organising the event as part of a massive UK marketing push forthe sixth Star Wars film.The UCI Empire will show thefirst five films and unveil Episode III to the public, an hour after itsUK premiere

David Beaird's TheCivilization Of Maxwell Bright won the grand jury award for best narrative feature and DavidRedmon's Mardi Gras: Made In China won documentary honours at the 2005 Florida Film Festival, whichran from Apr 8-17.Audience awardswent to Tim Kirkman's Loggerheads for best narrative feature, Kate Davis and David Heilbroner's PuckerUp: The Fine Art Of Whistling for best documentary feature, and Bobby Houston and RobertHudson's

Dir: Claude Lelouch.France. 2005. 135 mins. Men And Women is an amalgamation of the first two parts inClaude Lelouch's E30 million trilogy Le Genre Humain designed for the export market and worldpremiered last week in Los Angeles at the City Of Lights, City Of Angels filmfestival. Of those two parts, the first, Les Parisiens, was a resounding flop at the French box officewhen it was released

TheUK launch last weekend for Niels Mueller's The Assassination of Richard Nixon gave the film its strongest opening in any territory so far.The film, which stars SeanPenn, took $295,761 through 66 cinemas - a far higher total than it achieved onits US launch on December 29 last year. In the US, the film had a limitedrelease through ThinkFilm, taking $37, 547 in five cinemas on its openingweekend. It went on to take $708,000 in total.In Italy, the film opened on100 screen

Santa Monica-basedfinancing, production and sales house Myriad Pictures has announced three promotionsgoing into Cannes.JC Rappaport is promotedfrom director of acquisitions and development to vice president of productionand acquisitions; he will report to company president and chief executiveofficer Kirk D'Amico.Linda Chiu has been promotedto director of development and production and will work closely with Rappaporton development as well as liaising with pr

Members of theHouse of Representatives passed s.167 of the Family Entertainment and CopyrightAct of 2005, which among other provisions makes camcording a federal offenceand upgrades it from misdemeanour to the more serious criminal grade of felony.Multiple offenders face up to six years and/or a fine.Special immunityclauses mean that theatre owners and employees who detain suspected offenders ingood faith will not face charges of false imprisonment or false arrest. Thelegislation was a

Cannes's Un Certain Regardsidebar has unveiled a line-up dominated by festival newcomers - and a numberof high profile veterans. Of the 21 directors invited to UnCertain Regard, only four have ever been selected for Cannes before. Each ofthose four has had their previous work in the main competition.Announcing the line-up,festival artistic director Thierry Fremaux said, "Un Cer

The ongoing controversy surrounding Korea's PuchonInternational Fantastic Film Festival (PiFan) has taken a new turn, with thefestival's former director and programmers announcing a rival event to takeplace in Seoul over the same week.The 'Real Fantastic Film Festival' will run inJuly on one-twentieth the budget of its larger rival, and will featureapproximately 50 films, including 'Marx Attacks! - Sci-fi Moviesfrom Eastern Europe' organised with the Neuchatel festi

Brad Grey's Paramountrevolution continues apace with news that Alli Shearmur has been promoted toco-president of production at the studio.Shearmur, formerly executivevice president of production, will oversee day-to-day development andproduction of the slate as well as literary acquisitions, and will report toincoming Paramount president Gail Berman, who officially starts in May.As executive vice presidentof production Shearmur (nee Brecker) developed titles like The Bad News

Amanda Peet is in final negotiations to sign on to The MartianChild for New LineCinema. The film is an adaptation of a short story by sci-fi writer DavidGerrold that is due to begin shooting in Canada next month.

Scott Mitchell Rosenberg's Los Angeles-based PlatinumStudios has acquired a 20% stake in French comic book syndicate Hexagon Comicsand picked up exclusive rights to develop worldwide film and televisionproperties from Hexagon's library.Platinum Studiosis seeking production partners and plans a roster of live-action and animatedprojects, both as bigger budget US features and European productions in French,Spanish and Italian.Hexagon, whichoriginated in 1950 as Editions Lug, has a

The shooting schedule of Ana Kokkinos' TheBook of Revelation has had to be rapidly re-arranged after lead actor TomLong broke his ankle on Friday (April 15) while filming in Melbourne. The filmwas one week away from wrapping.The injury occurred when Long landed awkwardly during anaction scene in a nightclub setting. To allow for

Writer-director MichaelMcGowan's Saint Ralph won thefeature film prize at the ninth annual Canadian Screenwriting Awards. The award was presented Monday night in Toronto. Thebittersweet coming-of-age story recently won the Grand Arc Award at the FestivalParis Ile-de-France. One of the fewEnglish-Canadian films to land distribution abroad last year Samuel Goldwynpicked it up for the US while Revolver took the film for the UK SaintRalph stars Adam Butcher as a boywho

Elie Samaha, the filmproducer who lost a $106m jury verdict last June in Los Angeles federal courtin a fraud and breach-of-contract suit filed by Germany's IntertainmentLicensing, has filed for a rematch.On Monday this week,attorneys for Samaha filed a motion for a new trial, claiming thatIntertainment's former chairman Rudiger "Barry" Baeres and his lawyers at theMunich-based company concealed "bad evidence" in the discovery phase of thelitigation, and that the alleged concealment all

Focus Features co-presidentJames Schamus has joined the Nantucket Film Festival board ahead of thefestival's 10th annual incarnation, which runs from Jun 15-19.Festival organisers alsoannounced they have teamed up with Kevin Spacey's online film-makers'collective TriggerStreet.com for a year-long screenplay competition that willculminate in a reading of the winning screenplay.Schamus earned best adaptedscreenplay and best song Academy Award nominations for Crouching Tiger,Hid

New York-basedpower producer Scott Rudin is close to signing a five-year, first look dealwith Walt Disney Studios that would see him make features for the Buena Vista,Touchstone and Miramax labels.Whilecontractual terms and start date remain unclear - Rudin's deal with Paramountexpires in 18 months and he owes that studio two pictures - a Disneyspokesperson confirmed the deal, while also rubbishing reports yesterdayclaiming that Rudin will run the Miramax division.However it see

Andrew Stevensand Donald Kushner have joined forces to launch the production and distributioncompany Focal Point Releasing and have lined up a debut slate for Cannes.The partnershave wasted little time in getting the operation off the ground, naming BarbaraMudge head of their international sales division, effective immediately.Titles inpre-production include Gray, a modern retelling of Oscar Wilde's The Picture Of DorianGray, Anya Camilleri'ssupernatural thriller

Istanbul International Film Festival closed on Saturday(April 16), splitting its main prize, the Golden Tulip award, between Gilles'Wife by Belgium's Frederic Fonteyne and CafeLumiere by Taiwan's Hou Hsiao-hsien. The jury, which was headed by director Jane Campion,considered 13 films in competition.Gilles' Wife portraysa love triangle in France in the 1930s. Cafe Lumiere tells the story of a Japanese writer and thereaction of friends and family to her

THINKFilm has picked up allNorth American rights to Lajos Koltai's Holocaust drama Fateless, which premiered in competition at Berlin and becomeHungary's biggest ever box office hit in its native country earlier this year,drawing more than 400,000 admissions.Based on Nobel Prize winnerImre Kertesz's screenplay from his own novel, Fateless chronicles the story of a 14-year-old Jewish boyfrom Budapest who is deported to a concentration camp and struggles to copewith life af

Paris-basedwriter-director Laurent Tirard's The Story Of My Life (Mensonges Et Trahisons Et Plus SiAffinites) won theaudience award at the ninth annual City of Lights, City of Angels Film Festival(COLCOA), which ran in Los Angeles from Apr 11-17.The picturestars Edouard Baer, Clovis Cornillac and Alice Taglioni and tells the story ofa frustrated celebrity ghostwriter with dreams of literary success who works ona football player's autobiography.Cornillac wonthe Cesa

Industry-backedpost-production alliance the Post Production Training Initiative and trainingagency Skillset have launched a trainee scheme for post production staff.Titled First Post, theinitiative will be open to up 25 trainees at companies in London and aims tohelp employers provide structured development for runners. The deadline for applicationfrom companies is April 29. O1 Zero-One will run the scheme on a day-to-daybasis, although it will be centrally m

Financing anddistribution for Southland Tales, Richard Kelly's sci-fi follow-up to Donnie Darko, is beginning to take shape in advanceof the scheduled start date of Aug 1 in Los Angeles.UniversalPictures International, Inferno Distribution and Wild Bunch will co-finance thefilm, with Universal distributing in most international markets through UIP andWild Bunch taking rights for France, Benelux, Spain and Switzerland. RichardKlubeck of UTA is representing the film in dome

Continuingto follow in the career footsteps of Arnold Schwarzenegger, action star VinDiesel has made the successful transition to comedy with BVI's The Pacifiertaking the number one spot on the international chart.The film opened top in Germany, Austria, Switzerland,Hong Kong and Malaysia this week, held the lead in Australia in its fourth weekwith a 16% week-on-week rise and slipped only 17% to second in Spain.Thefamily comedy recently passed $100m in North America and w

In a surprise move, it was announced last week that DickWillemsen's contract as director of the Maurits Binger Film Institutewill not be renewed. Willemsen is on six month's notice and will be leavingthe Institute in early August.Founded in 1995, the Amsterdam-based Binger Film Instituteoffers project-driven training for screenwriters, directors, producers andscript editors.In recent months, there have been complaints in certainquarters that the Institute is not serving t

Media outlets around theworld were quick to reach a near unanimous view about this year's Cannes FilmFestival line-up.Almost without exception,the press took note of this year's return to big name directors such as Larsvon Trier, Wim Wenders and Jim Jarmusch.Many compared this year'sauteur heavy line-up with last year's more controversial selection, which sawanimated films such as Shrek 2 and documentaries like MichaelMoore's Palme d'Or winner Fahrenheit 9/11

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